Investigation and remediation of false topographic perception phenomena observed on Chang’E-1 lunar imagery

False topographic perception phenomenon (FTPP) is a relief inversion phenomenon in remote sensing images and causes false perception problems. Such images of the Moon suffer from serious FTPP problems. Correctly observing and understanding the terrain features on the Moon from lunar surface images is important for lunar exploration missions and various lunar scientific investigations. This paper presents a systematic investigation of the FTPP problem associated with lunar craters, by using the Chang’E-1 lunar imagery covering the major areas of the lunar surface. Results reveal that the FTPP problem is positively correlated with crater latitudes in the north hemisphere of the Moon. For craters within a similar latitude range, the FTPP level is positively correlated with the depth–diameter ratio of the crater. A wavelet-transform based approach is proposed for FTPP remediation on Chang’E-1 imagery. Experimental analysis using three different types of craters revealed that the approach is able to effectively correct the FTPP problem.